The present invention relates to a mechanism for adjusting the height of cut for the cutter deck of a conventional riding lawn mower. More particularly, the present invention relates to a cutter deck leveling fine adjustment mechanism for a riding lawn mower.
Conventional lawn mowers include a suspended cutter deck that is height adjustable to adjust deck cutting height. Typically, the cutter deck is suspended from a cutter deck support assembly having a rear-deck lift assembly with a coarse lift adjustment mechanism and a front-deck lift assembly also having a coarse lift adjustment mechanism. The rear-deck assembly and the front-deck lift assembly have a bar extending horizontally across the top of the cutter deck. Each bar is supported by a portion of the lawn mower frame above the deck. At each end of each bar, a radially outwardly extending bracket is rotationally fixed thereto. A chain bolted at a top end to each bracket extends downwardly and is bolted at a lower end to the cutter deck, roughly at the four corners of the deck.
The rear-deck and front-deck lift assemblies are operatively connected via a linkage providing a coordinated pivoting movement of the brackets upwardly and downwardly in response to the movement of a handle and foot pedal raising or lowering the height of all four corners of the cutter deck in coarse simultaneous quarter-inch incremental adjustments. In addition to the coarse simultaneous adjustment of the height of the cutter deck, a user may desire to more finely adjust the suspended deck, for example, at individual corners of the deck, to more finely adjust the leveling of the deck.
Accordingly, in addition to coarse adjustment of the height of a cutter deck, there is a need in the art for a fine adjustment mechanism for leveling the height of a cutter deck.